[URBAN NOTE] Two links on the escaped capybara of High Park
CBC interviewed a local expert in capybara on the ability of individuals of this species to hide.
Catching the pair of capybaras currently on the lam in Toronto's High Park won't be an easy feat, according to an expert with experience wrangling the giant rodents in his native Brazil.
"They have this survival instinct. It's like running after a cheetah," said Diogo Beltran, who worked with the Tropical Sustainability Institute in Brazil, a country where capybaras are a major nuisance, not unlike rats or raccoons.
"In Brazil it's a hobby. We don't go out hunting turkeys - we capture capybaras in our spare time," he said in an interview on CBC Radio's Metro Morning.
[. . . B]eltran said that in Brazil, capybaras aren't always a laughing matter. Now a computer engineer, he once worked to clear large groups of capybaras from construction sites and rivers. He and his colleagues used traps to humanely capture the animals for release in the wild. But it wasn't easy.
One reason is that capybaras are semi-acquatic. They can hide in water and remain below the surface for up to five minutes at a time. It's for this reason Beltran says they can't be captured using tranquillizer darts because they'll just run into the water and drown once the sedative takes effect.
Catching the pair of capybaras currently on the lam in Toronto's High Park won't be an easy feat, according to an expert with experience wrangling the giant rodents in his native Brazil.
"They have this survival instinct. It's like running after a cheetah," said Diogo Beltran, who worked with the Tropical Sustainability Institute in Brazil, a country where capybaras are a major nuisance, not unlike rats or raccoons.
"In Brazil it's a hobby. We don't go out hunting turkeys - we capture capybaras in our spare time," he said in an interview on CBC Radio's Metro Morning.
[. . . B]eltran said that in Brazil, capybaras aren't always a laughing matter. Now a computer engineer, he once worked to clear large groups of capybaras from construction sites and rivers. He and his colleagues used traps to humanely capture the animals for release in the wild. But it wasn't easy.
One reason is that capybaras are semi-acquatic. They can hide in water and remain below the surface for up to five minutes at a time. It's for this reason Beltran says they can't be captured using tranquillizer darts because they'll just run into the water and drown once the sedative takes effect.